Siam mapped: The making of Thai nationhood

Ecologist

Volumn 26, Issue 5, 1996, Pages 215-221

  Winichakul, Thongchai ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BOUNDARY DEMARCATION; CONCEPTUAL APPROACH; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; MAPPING; MAPPING ROLE; NATIONAL IDENTITY; NATIONHOOD; POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY; SIAM; STATE BUILDING;

THAILAND;

EID: 0030437421     PISSN: 02613131     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. See Anderson, B., Imagined Communities, Verso, London and New York, 1983.
2. The Burney Papers, Vajiranana National Library, Bangkok, 1910-1914, Vol. 1, 154-155.
3. The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 1, pp.122, 161; Hall, D.G.E., Henry Burney: A Political Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1974, p.73.
4. The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 1, pp.122, 161; Hall, D.G.E., Henry Burney: A Political Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1974, p.73.
5. The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 1, p.22,
6. The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 1, p.313, Article 4, and p. 377, Article 3. For Burney's proposal, see The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 1, pp.251-252.
7. The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 1, p.313, Article 4, and p. 377, Article 3. For Burney's proposal, see The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 1, pp.251-252.
8. See the letter in The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, pp.140-142.
9. Nakhon Phannaron, [Negotiations and agreements between the Siamese and British governments concerning the frontier towns between Lanna and Burma in the reign of King Chulalongkorn during 1885-1895, M.Ed, thesis, Prasanmit Education College, 1973.
10. Prescott, J.R.V., Boundaries and Frontiers, Croom Helm, London, 1978, p.31.
11. The Burney Papers, op. cit. 1, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, pp. 157-158.
12. Mills, L.A., British Malaya 1824-67, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1966, pp.31-32.
13. For a history of Cambodia in relation to Siam and Vietnam before the nineteenth century, see Chandler, D., History of Cambodia, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1983, pp.94-97, 113-116.
14. When Siam was a discontinuous, patchy arrangement of power units where people of different overlords mingled together in the same area and only spies worked close to the frontier towns of one another, areas far from the centre of a kingdom might be generously given away to other kingdoms for the sake of friendship. The border would then shrink a bit, but it did not matter. In fact, throughout South-East Asia, as one scholar remarks, "marginal territorial concessions were not viewed as fatal to the kingdom. As long as the essence of sovereignty [the centre] was unimpaired, such concessions were a legitimate instrument of policy." The political sphere could be mapped only by power relationships, not by territorial integrity. See Solomon, R.L., "Boundary Concepts and Practices in Southeast Asia", World Politics, 23, 1970, p. 15.
15. Siam had first tested its reform of provincial administration in the 1870s in Lanna before developing and applying it to the Lao region along the Mekong. From 1892 onwards, it was implemented in other regions, including the inner provinces of Siam. It was a gradual process of displacing the traditional local autonomy by the modern mechanism of centralization such that Bangkok controlled revenue, taxes, budgets, education, the judicial system and other administrative functions. The whole country shifted from the traditional hierarchical relationships of rulers to the new administration on a territorial basis.
16. Bangkok never thought of itself as similar to the European imperialists. The most significant distinction in Siam's view was probably that the French and other European powers were alien or foreigners or "They", but Siam was "We" to native peoples in the region. There were thus two types of conquest: one by "We", the other by "They". The chiefdoms being conquered, however, might not consider Siam as much "We" as "They".
17. McCarthy, J., Surveying and Exploring in Siam, John Murray, London, 1902, pp.18-77.
18. Field Marshall Chaophraya Surasakmontri, [Autobiography], Khurusapha, Bangkok, 1961, Vol. 2, p.332.
19. A history of the geo-body of Siam is not a chronological description of boundary demarcations and the events which led to the making of Siam's map. It is a case in which different kinds of geographic knowledge co-existed, collided and some were eventually displaced.
20. Speech of M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, p. 19.
21. Thamsook Numnonda, Thailand and the Japanese Presence 1941-1945, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1977, pp.21-41.
22. In May 1939, however, the government changed the name of the country from Siam to Thailand to promote the domination of the ethnic Thai people (who lived in the central pan of Thailand including Bangkok) and their culture over others in the country. I use the terms Siam and Siamese to refer to the country and its people before 1939 and Thailand and Thai after 1939. Despite the racial prejudice expressed in the name's etymology, it is no longer the dominant signification of the term. "Thainess" is not meant today to denote the characteristics of the ethnic Thai exclusively, but of the country's nationals as a whole. See Thamsook Numnonda, op. cit. 19, chap.2; Thak Chaloemtiarana, (ed.) Thai Politics: Extracts and Documents 1932-1957, Social Science Association of Thailand, Bangkok, 1978, pp.246-247.
23. In May 1939, however, the government changed the name of the country from Siam to Thailand to promote the domination of the ethnic Thai people (who lived in the central pan of Thailand including Bangkok) and their culture over others in the country. I use the terms Siam and Siamese to refer to the country and its people before 1939 and Thailand and Thai after 1939. Despite the racial prejudice expressed in the name's etymology, it is no longer the dominant signification of the term. "Thainess" is not meant today to denote the characteristics of the ethnic Thai exclusively, but of the country's nationals as a whole. See Thamsook Numnonda, op. cit. 19, chap.2; Thak Chaloemtiarana, (ed.) Thai Politics: Extracts and Documents 1932-1957, Social Science Association of Thailand, Bangkok, 1978, pp.246-247.
24. Keyes, C.F., Isan: Regionalism in Northeastern Thailand, Cornell Thailand Project Interim Report Series, No. 10, Southeast Asia Program, Data Paper 65, Cornell University, Ithaca, 1967, pp.2-3; 60-61.
25. [Report of the seminar on national identity and development], Commission for National Identity, Office of the Prime Minister, Bangkok, 1985, p. 1.
26. See the transcription of the programme in [For the Thai land], Office of General Information, Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence, Bangkok, 1986, 3 Vols.
27. Far Eastern Economic Review, 18 June 1987, p.53; Prudhisan Jumbala, "Interest and Pressure Groups" in Somsakdi Xuto (ed.) Government and Politics of Thailand, Oxford University Press, Kual Lumpur, 1987, p. 130.
28. Far Eastern Economic Review, 18 June 1987, p.53; Prudhisan Jumbala, "Interest and Pressure Groups" in Somsakdi Xuto (ed.) Government and Politics of Thailand, Oxford University Press, Kual Lumpur, 1987, p. 130.
29. Girling, J.S., Thailand: Society and Politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1981, p.215, translated from Sayamchotmaihet, 2-8 December 1976.
30. Girling, J.S., Thailand: Society and Politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1981, p.215, translated from Sayamchotmaihet, 2-8 December 1976.
31. Ibid., pp.211-214; Morell, D. and Chai-anan Samudavanija, Political Conflict in Thailand: Reform, Reaction, Revolution, Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain, Cambridge, Mass, 1981, pp.244-246.
32. Ibid., pp.211-214; Morell, D. and Chai-anan Samudavanija, Political Conflict in Thailand: Reform, Reaction, Revolution, Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain, Cambridge, Mass, 1981, pp.244-246.